JULY 5 HARTAL: A BIG SUCCESS - Prakash Karat

EVERYONE, except the Congress party, accepts that the July 5 all India hartal was a big success. The hartal affected all parts of the country – from Manipur in the North East to Jammu in the North West and from Kerala in the South to Himachal Pradesh in the North. This response came from the people who are fed up with the ever increasing price rise of food and essential commodities. Ever since the UPA-II government came into office, there has been no respite from price rise.

The last straw was the second successive hike in petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices within three months. This time, kerosene was also not spared. On top of this has come the deregulation of petrol pricing which will mainly benefit the private oil companies and put consumers at the mercy of the market.

All the justifications by the government for increasing the prices of petroleum products and deregulating them have been exposed as untrue. India has the highest petrol price in the region which is due to high taxation. The government revenue keeps increasing exponentially with every price hike. The public sector oil companies are making profits and the so-called under recoveries are only notional. The price hikes will fuel inflation which is already in double digit figures and erode any possibility of providing food security.

The success of the hartal has led to the usual criticism – that the economy has suffered a loss of thousands of crores of rupees. This cry is being raised by the very quarters who have received tax concessions worth thousands of crores in the last budget and who are being promised more in the Direct Taxes Code to be promulgated shortly. Taxes foregone through various exemptions to the corporate sector alone amounted to Rs. 80 thousand crore in 2009-10.

The other attack is on the Left. The Congress has accused the Left of joining hands with the BJP. The corporate media is amusingly concerned about the ideological purity of the CPI (M). They are railing against the opportunism of the Left for combining with the Right.

The politics of the CPI (M) and its stand against communalism is well-known. The role played by the CPI (M) and the Left in countering the communal politics represented by the BJP and defending secularism is consistent. It does not suffer from the vacillations and compromises which the Congress is prone to.

The bogey of the Left joining hands with the communal forces is being raised to divert attention from the main issue. The CPI (M) has opposed the petroleum pricing policies of successive governments. During the United Front government when a policy announcement was made regarding deregulation, the CPI (M) had strongly objected to it. The Party had pointed out what steps should be taken to reduce the oil pool deficit. The United Front government could not implement this policy as it did not last long after the notification. However, deregulation was implemented by the NDA government in 2002 by dismantling the Administered Price Mechanism (APM). The CPI (M) opposed the policy and conducted agitations against the price hikes of petroleum products. The deregulation policy was discontinued in 2004.

Now too, the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to deregulate petroleum prices will be met with strong opposition from the CPI (M).

After the announcement in the Union Budget of increase in excise and customs duties on petrol and diesel, the Left parties took the initiative and 13 parties met and gave a call for an all India hartal on April 27. This was the first major all India protest action against price rise after the UPA-II government came into office.

Disregarding the protests of the entire opposition inside Parliament and outside, the Congress-led government has now callously taken further steps to increase the burdens on the people through another round of price hikes. This is accompanied by its refusal to make policy changes which will help curb price rise. This is the issue on which the Left parties along with seven other parties – the Samajwadi Party, AIADMK, TDP, BJD, JD(S), INLD and AGP – decided to give a call for the July 5 hartal. Faced with such a big attack on the people’s livelihood, no opposition party could keep away from an all India protest. Other opposition parties, mainly the NDA, also gave a call for a bandh.

Even the RJD and the LJP, which support the UPA government, have given a call for a bandh on July 10 in Bihar.

Faced with this massive opposition and protest, the Congress party and its supporters in the corporate media are now raising in chorus the spectre of a “Left-BJP unity”. They conveniently ignore the fact that almost all the secular opposition parties have conducted the hartal.

The people are not going to be confused by the talk of a “Left-BJP” combination. They are going to judge each political party by how sincerely they protect their interests in the face of this onslaught through price hikes. The Trinamul Congress has been stripped off all its pretensions of defending the people’s interests by being part of the Central government and going along with these anti-people measures.

As far as the CPI (M) and the Left parties are concerned, such politically motivated propaganda will not deter them. The struggle against price rise and the government’s harmful petroleum pricing policies will have to be intensified further. The Convention held by the Left parties has already called for a campaign on food security and price rise in the month of August. This campaign should lay the basis for next phase of the struggle. In the meantime, the Left parties will, in coordination with the secular opposition parties, take up the price hikes of petroleum products in Parliament in the forthcoming monsoon session. Along with that, all these parties will consult on how to widen and develop the movement outside.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org

FDI IN ORGANISED RETAIL: A LOSE-LOSE GAME - Raghu

THE UPA government is once again attempting to completely open up the retail sector to foreign direct investment including, possibly, 100 per cent FDI in organised multi-brand retail or supermarket chains. The department of industrial policy and promotion has issued a discussion paper on this subject, significantly without suggesting any upper limit on FDI. Currently, FDI is permitted up to 26 per cent under the automatic route in wholesale so-called cash-and-carry operations and up to 51 per cent with government approval in single-brand stores such as Nike shoes, Levi jeans or Calvin Klein readymades. These measures have been welcomed by industry, and seen by critics as the thin end of the wedge. Opening up the retail sector in India to foreign players has been a gradual process but the end-goal has always been clear, namely the unfettered entry into India of global supermarket chain stores such as Wal-Mart of the US, Carrefour of France, Marks & Spencer and Tesco of UK, Shoprite of South Africa and so on, all of whom have already established a substantial presence in India. The Indian retail market, with its burgeoning middle-class with growing purchasing power has, after the opening up of China, long been considered the last major frontier of globalised retail.

From the beginning these moves have been totally opposed by the Left and other progressive sections. Opposition has also come, albeit somewhat two-facedly, from the BJP with one eye on corporate interests and another on its major constituency of small traders who are deeply apprehensive. Arguments against have mostly centered around the potential adverse impact on the mostly unorganised small retail sector of so-called mom-and-pop stores (in India more often father-and-son stores) and the likely large-scale loss of employment in this sector. These arguments have been dismissed by proponents as being purely ideological and as going against modern trends and the opinions of experts.

Arguments advanced in support of this policy by corporate houses including Indian retail chains, business associations, consultancy firms and government officials have revolved around two major propositions which, this article would show, are complete myths.

First, huge wastage in the agri-produce supply chain in India will be avoided because MNC retail giants would make the huge investments required in storage, cold-chain and transportation infrastructure and also bring in new technologies. Second, the farmer in particular would benefit from this improved efficiency and by the elimination of middle-men, the customer too ultimately benefiting through better quality produce and lower prices. A win-win scenario advanced as the gospel truth.

On the contrary, international experience has shown that, except for the huge profits raked in by the supermarket chains, organised retail has been a lose-lose scenario for farmers, small traders and wholesalers, consumers, and the environment and therefore society as a whole.

FOOD WASTE IN SUPERMARKETS

India is the world’s second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world after China, producing around 180 million tonnes. Official estimates are that about 25-30 per cent of this produce goes waste between harvest and consumption. In theory, if fresh produce is collected efficiently at the farm-gate, and end-to-end cold-chain is maintained in storage and transportation till it reaches supermarket shelves as in developed countries, this wastage can be eliminated, translating into better prices for the farmer and lower prices for the consumer besides greater availability of the produce for processing, export and other value-addition. In practice, a very different story emerges from the West.

In the US, official data show 27-33 per cent of food being wasted between farm and consumer during collection, storage, distribution and consumption! Of course, this also includes the horrendous amount of food waste generated in households and restaurants, but the amount of wastes within the distribution system is not much less.

Supermarkets themselves in the US are estimated to throw away $20 billion (Rs 95,000 crores) worth of food every year, more than twice as much as in the EU. Huge quantities of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats are routinely thrown away by supermarkets every day partly from fear of spoilage but also simply because they appear unappealing to consumers. Food products constitute 63 per cent of a supermarket’s waste, according to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. The logic of supermarkets dictates that they stock and display huge quantities of fresh produce, unsold stocks being simply thrown away. Supermarkets also compete with each other on the quality of their produce. This requires bulk suppliers to conduct ruthless sorting, throwing away otherwise edible but unappealing produce. In fact in the EU, prior to 2009 when a new policy came into effect, supermarkets were required by law to discard misshaped fruit and vegetables!

Supermarkets in the EU and USA are now being motivated to dispose of their wastes in an environment-friendly way in sanitary landfills or even through gasification or converting to manure, which can also generate some revenues although, of course, it would have been far better if food had not been allowed to become trash in the first place.

And all this is only with respect to fresh produce. The supermarket culture of course also encourages packaged, pre-cooked or semi-cooked foods with expiry dates, huge quantities of which again get thrown away by supermarkets each year because of over-stocking. Pre-packaging of groceries and other food items also leads to huge accumulation of packaging material which has to be discarded posing a huge waste disposal and environmental problem, amounting to 5.3 million tonnes in the UK alone!

So much for the saving wastage argument!

FARMERS AND SMALL TRADERS LOSE

The other myth about organised retail is that it would benefit farmers and also not harm small traders who could simply shift from the traditional supply chain to the modern one linked to supermarkets. Again the facts are exactly the opposite.

The authoritative UK Competition Commission found in a 2000 study of major retail chains including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and Tesco that supermarkets had a poor record on treatment of all categories of suppliers, specifically that “the burden of cost increases in the supply chain has fallen disproportionately heavily on small suppliers such as farmers.” Apart from prices, smaller farmers came under severe pressure from supermarkets due to the latter’s requirement for large volumes of each product, pushing farmers to grow single crops rather than the multiple produce they would usually grow to minimise risk. Similarly, insistence on or good prices only for similarly sized produce again works to reduce bio-diversity, pushes prices down and drives suppliers towards more input-intensive factory-farming. The commission called for greater regulation and enforcement of the UK Fair Trading Code of Practice which it said itself needed to be strengthened to protect smaller suppliers from exploitation engendered by the immense power exercised by large buyers.

Numerous other supermarket practices too worked against the interests of almost all other stakeholders. Supermarket chains routinely sell some products at lower than market prices, which appears to benefit to consumers, but this puts pressure on small local stores in turn having adverse impact especially on low-income and elderly consumers who rely on local shops. Supermarkets also tend to alter prices in different branches adjusting to local rivals, “price-flexing” as the Commission termed it, again working to the disadvantage of local mom-and-pop stores. All in all, the Report said, “27 [such] practices by… major buyers operate against the public interest.”

In its January 2010 report, the UK Competition Commission concluded that the situation had not changed in over a decade, and that the practices of big retail chains continued to cause losses for farmers and small stores. The near-monopoly of supermarket chains, which procure over 70 per cent of food products in the UK, enables them to “dictate prices and force farmers into trading for less and less.” The UKCC found evidence that some chains including Tesco were bullying producers into lowering prices, a charge also leveled by the National Farmers’ Union, with dairy farmers receiving 20 per cent less for milk than they did 19 years ago, and over 1,000 dairy farmers having gone out of business in 2009 alone.

FAO in its “Spotlight 2005” Report concluded that these trends are witnessed in other countries and regions too, showing once again that these patterns are inherent to the very logic of supermarket chains, not to some peculiarities of Western cultures. Organised retail increases pressure on farmers to produce standardised produce, pushes down prices and margins, and over time weeds out larger numbers of smaller suppliers in favour of fewer and larger “preferred suppliers”. In Malaysia, one chain that had started with 200 suppliers had whittled them down to just 30 within two years. Despite the famous sharp preference of Asian consumers for fresh produce from local so-called “wet markets”, big cities of Malaysia saw the share of supermarkets in fresh produce retail rise to 60 per cent in fruit and 35 per cent in vegetables. Similarly in Bangkok, supermarkets were selling 40 per cent of fruit and 30 per cent of vegetables by 2002. The FAO report predicts that, following trends in Europe and the US, Asian markets too will witness gradual marginalisation of traditional wholesalers in favour of increasingly consolidated “preferred suppliers” and “dedicated wholesalers” who would be brought into joint ventures or tied-up in long-term contracts.

The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute says that the heightened penetration of supermarket chains into Asia, Africa and Latin America is locking small farmers out of the supply chain and driving millions of farmers into poverty. Latin America has been the worst hit with the fastest growth in supermarkets, achieving in ten years diffusion rates that took 50 years in the US! In Brazil, the share of supermarkets in fresh food sales went up from 30 per cent to 75 per cent in just ten years between 1990 and 2000.

SUPERMARKET CULTURE: NEED FOR REGULATION

Colossal waste and inordinate pressure on suppliers are part of supermarket culture. In Singapore, studies have found that close to 30 per cent of fresh produce is thrown away in wholesalers’ sorting yards or supermarkets even before they appear on shop shelves because of ostensible defects or being otherwise deemed non-saleable. Within supermarkets themselves, food wastage in Singapore is estimated at 20 per cent compared to 30 per cent in the US or UK.

Indeed, supermarket waste has reached such proportions that the UK has an active Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) aimed at reducing all forms of wastage in supermarkets. WRAP studies have found that many factors drive such wastage, chief among them being the very character of supermarkets and the type of shopping practices they engender. People shop more and buy far more than they actually consume simply because they can! In major urban centres, where supermarkets are often open round the clock, shoppers end up buying many other items than what they may have come in for, and more than they need. Promotional offers such as buy-one-get-one-free and other so-called multi-buy promotions means that more groceries get pushed than are consumed.

Yet the pressure exerted by the powerful retail chains is such, and the ideology of de-regulation is so strong, that of course one can barely talk of regulation in the US while efforts at regulation in the Eurozone and UK have not made much headway.

The influential UK Sustainable Development Commission (UK-SDC) in its study of policies relating to supermarkets strongly criticised the British government for allowing WRAP to leave it to the supermarkets themselves to formulate a voluntary self-regulatory set of practices to reduce waste termed the Courtald Agreement. UK-SDC stated that “too many supermarket practices are… unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable.” Needless to say, the UK-SDC report covered many other areas of supermarket operations too besides the issue of food and other waste.

An even broader ambit was covered by the UK Competition Commission whose 2000 Report cited earlier led to the proclamation of a Supermarkets Code of Practice which was later amended in 2009 to the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) that lays down standards and procedures for procurement, fair trade, inventories and sales, and so on.

It is indeed significant that in all the debate in India around organised retail, no industry or government body has said a word about regulation or the need for it. For all their weaknesses, it is the presence and functioning of regulatory bodies in the UK and EU, in contrast to the situation prevalent in the US that has at least thrown up a substantial amount of data and analytical information, and brought supermarkets under public scrutiny and the possibility of at least some social control.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org

“YOUR SOLIDARITY WILL HELP LEFT FRONT TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES”

The solidarity being expressed through out the country with the ongoing struggle of the Left Front in Bengal against the forces of reaction will help in overcoming the challenges it faces from these forces, said CPI (M) West Bengal state secretariat member Srideep Bhattacharjee.

Underlining the fact that West Bengal has become an intensified theatre of class struggle in the country, he expressed confidence that the Left Front will create history by winning the coming assembly elections for the eighth successive term.

Srideep Bhattacharjee was addressing a convention today in Hyderabad, organised by the CPI (M) Andhra Pradesh state committee condemning the ongoing violence against the CPI (M) in Bengal and expressing solidarity with the Left Front and its government. CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and state secretary B V Raghavulu presided over the meeting while the deputy general secretary of CPI S Sudhakar Reddy and state secretaries of Forward Bloc and RSP parties also addressed it. A 30-minute documentary on the latest situation in areas of West Medinipur district was screened on this occasion. The documentary has been produced by New Media, which is a part of the India News Network. Earlier a rally was taken out from the state committee office in RTC X Roads to the venue of the convention in Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Bagh Lingampally.

Sreedip Bhattacharjee said the terror campaign against the Left in Bengal, which has claimed more than 280 comrades lives, has been unleashed by the so-called Maoists with the full support of both TMC and Congress. Parts of the border states of Jharkhand and Orissa are being used as launching pads for these attacks and as also shelters. He pointed to the duplicity of UPA-II regime on the issue of Maoist violence when the prime minister terms it as the gravest threat facing the nation while his cabinet colleagues openly hobnob with them.

The peculiar political combination against the Left Front which comprises forces from the extreme left to extreme right, the NGOs backed by imperialism, the corporates and its media was noted as also the systematic attempts to denigrate the CPI (M) by spreading canards. “The most heinous and murderous acts of the reactionary forces do not find place in the corporate media while the people's resistance actions are presented in a distorted manner. Some intellectuals are aiding in this distortion”, he said.

The ongoing people's resistance in the jangal mahal areas is becoming stronger by each passing day. People are returning to their homes and villages. The Left flag is fluttering once again in these areas defeating the forces of terror that had boasted of not allowing the Left back in these areas. The 'Maoist' killers are on the defensive and on the run, he said amidst applause from the audience. Srideep explained the significant achievements of the Left Front in areas of land reforms, panchayat system, agricultural production, education and health sectors etc through facts and figures.

B V Raghavulu in his speech highlighted how myriad forces are conspiring to launch attacks against the Left-led governments in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura with the intention of weakening the Left in the country. They are doing this because once the Left is weakened they can merrily carry on their policies of loot and servility to imperialism. Unfortunately, the Maoists, who speak of revolution, are aiding this conspiracy, he said. He stressed the need for defending these governments by all democratic forces in the country and called for campaigning among the people on these issues.

S Sudhakar Reddy said the people of the country must ponder over the reasons why only the Left-led governments are being targeted for unprecedented attacks while the many other parties' governments in other states are spared. Different tactics are adopted in these attacks – individual annihilation in Bengal, efforts to break tribal-non-tribal unity in Tripura or denigrating the LDF in Kerala using CBI. He questioned how many permutations of fronts will be formed to weaken the Left in Bengal by referring to the TMC-Congress-BJP mahajot once and now TMC-Congress-Maoists. Referring to Maoists individual annihilation policy, he said we had earlier also appealed to them to leave this path when they killed many Left cadre in AP. “We reject their path and all democratic forces in the country must condemn this murder politics”, Reddy said.

Forward Bloc state secretary Muralidhar Deshpande and RSP state secretary Janaki Ramulu also expressed solidarity with the struggling people of Bengal. A well known poet Himajwala recited a poem he wrote in solidarity with the ongoing struggle of the Left in Bengal. Praja Natya Mandali troupe rendered songs on this occasion.

The CPI (M) held programmes elsewhere in the state as part of the solidarity campaign. On Septemeber 15, B V Raghavulu attended a convention held in Vishakapatnam while Central Committee members participated in meetings held in various parts of the state. Solidarity meetings and rallies were held in most of the divisions while in some districts the campaign was held at mandal levels also.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org

ALL-PARTY MEETING ON KASHMIR - Left Demands Initiation of Political Process

THE representatives of the Left parties, namely Prakash Karat (CPI-M), A B Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (AIFB) and Prasanta Mazumdar (RSP), who spoke at the all-party meeting on Kashmir, held in New Delhi on September 15, made the following points.

1) They expressed their sorrow and anguish at the death of more than 80 people in the police firings in the valley in the past three months. They called for a halt to the method of policing which had led to the deaths of a large number of people due to firing. There should be a distinction made in handling the stone pelting crowds and tackling the violence by the militants and terrorist activities.

2) Many of the young men in jail, arrested during this period, should be released if they are not facing any serious charges. Steps should be taken to provide relief for the large number of people injured and those permanently incapacitated.

3) Measures should be taken for providing economic relief for the continuous disruption of business and economic activities in the valley, with special emphasis on providing employment.

4) There should be accountability for the security forces. Action should be taken on the excesses and human rights violations. The army is not deployed or in use in various areas. Pending the question of amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Disturbed Areas proclamation must be revoked from Srinagar and other centres, which will make the AFSPA redundant in these areas.

5) The political process should begin and dialogue should be initiated with all sections in the state. For this purpose, an all-party delegation should be sent to Kashmir to hear the views of different sections of the people.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org

ALL-PARTY MEETING ON KASHMIR - Left Demands Initiation of Political Process

THE representatives of the Left parties, namely Prakash Karat (CPI-M), A B Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (AIFB) and Prasanta Mazumdar (RSP), who spoke at the all-party meeting on Kashmir, held in New Delhi on September 15, made the following points.

1) They expressed their sorrow and anguish at the death of more than 80 people in the police firings in the valley in the past three months. They called for a halt to the method of policing which had led to the deaths of a large number of people due to firing. There should be a distinction made in handling the stone pelting crowds and tackling the violence by the militants and terrorist activities.

2) Many of the young men in jail, arrested during this period, should be released if they are not facing any serious charges. Steps should be taken to provide relief for the large number of people injured and those permanently incapacitated.

3) Measures should be taken for providing economic relief for the continuous disruption of business and economic activities in the valley, with special emphasis on providing employment.

4) There should be accountability for the security forces. Action should be taken on the excesses and human rights violations. The army is not deployed or in use in various areas. Pending the question of amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Disturbed Areas proclamation must be revoked from Srinagar and other centres, which will make the AFSPA redundant in these areas.

5) The political process should begin and dialogue should be initiated with all sections in the state. For this purpose, an all-party delegation should be sent to Kashmir to hear the views of different sections of the people.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org